Game Review: Street Fighter Alpha Anthology for the PS2

Capcom releases five Street Fighter games in the one of the best compilations …

Whenever I think of Capcom's hyper-successful Street Fighter series, I picture Cyrus in front of all those gangs shouting, "Can you count? The city is yours if you can count!" I can dig it, Cyrus. How long did it take for Capcom to make it to Street Fighter 3? To avoid it Capcom even went back and started a prequel series, Street Fighter Alpha, to further stretch out the franchise. The games had a more stylized, hand-drawn look than their Street Fighter 2 predecessors, and added a lot of game play changes to the aging series. Some of these changes are only note-worthy for the hyper-competitive professional players, but they do change how the game is played. The ability to block in the air alone made some players radically alter their strategies.

The collection includes five games: Alpha, Alpha 2, Alpha 2 Gold, Alpha 3, and the gimmicky but fun Super Gem Fighter MiniMix with super-deformed Street Fighter characters. You'll see the graphics and characters evolve from game to game, and it's great to see how good the characters and backgrounds look. Like most 2D games with good art the graphics never seem to age. Many of the features—like the Isms system from Street Fighter Alpha 3—will only really interest the hardcore, but so what? The game is still great fun if you want to get a group of friends together and button-mash. I've always been decent at fighting games: good enough to beat my friends most of the time, and I knew enough to at least challenge the kids at the arcades before they demolished me. While I appreciate some of the indiosyncrasies of the each revision, others are way over my head. I can see a lot of players never really bothering to customize the game to the extent it lets you, but on the flip side I can see the hardcore players staying up late at night arguing about which version of which character is the dominant one. This game will satisfy both types of players, and that rarely happens in any genre, much less 2D fighting games.

That's the strength of this collection, it has characters everyone loves, and among all the games there's really something for everyone who's a fan of fighting games. Even beginning players can have fun with Super Gem Fighter. The game is incredibly customizable in characters and game play, and as gamers we're not used to that level of transparency. You can see how a few changes can destroy your strategies, or how taking away or adding a few moves can show you how much you rely on some cheap tactics. It's a good learning experience, and you can take it as seriously as you'd like, or just fiddle with the games for fun.

There are some great unlockables, but I do wish for some better bonus features—maybe some of the animated Street Fighter movies, or commercials, or anything else about the franchise from the past. This a no frills, tightly designed collection of fighting games that will appeal to both casual and hardcore players. The only reason you should stay away from this is if you don't like 2D fighting games. Everyone else will have a lot of fun, and the $29.99 price makes this a home-run.